


Leave Home

by Play_The_Wind (orphan_account)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst, Annie Armin and Erwin are their hosts respectively, Anxiety, Armin is asexual, Asexual Character, Eren is from Germany, Exchange Student AU, F/F, F/M, Highschool AU, Levi is from Portugal, Levi is rly good at English, Levi's got a potty mouth still oops, M/M, Mikasa Eren and Levi are the exchange kids, Mikasa is from China, Pining, Tags to be added, Titan-Haired Eren Yeager, and speaks kinda poor English, but idk portuguese sounds like french right?, levi is vegetarian in this bcus i'm headcanon trash, like just as good as if it was his first language, rating will go up as chapters continue, sorry no french levi ://
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-04-09
Packaged: 2018-03-16 09:46:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3483635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Play_The_Wind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren leaves his home in Germany as an exchange student to the U.S. in order to catch up on his English studies. He spends the entirety of his Junior year in highschool at an American school in Trost, struggling with his English skills and desperately trying to get back the feeling of being home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heyooo, this is my second SNK/AOT fic, holla! Except, the first one was just a short one so I guess this is my first rly long one, oh dear DD: I've never been an exchange student myself either, but I am learning a new language and stuff (Spanish) so I kinda understand the not getting it part and am speaking from experience because wow guess who writes entire paragraphs and has to speak in Spanish a lot more now!! It's a real struggle for my weak tongue, plus memorization isn't really my forte. W/e tho, I really hope I don't fuck too much of this up.
> 
> Oh well, I hope you enjoy this. I've been tossing around the idea for almost three months now, and just had to get it out there.

Eren pulled his bag up over his shoulder, grateful he hadn't had to wait too long at the baggage claim. This was one of the only times he'd ever been to an airport, besides the one time his dad had taken him on a trip to the UK. Airports were weird, they were gross and smelled nasty, and he felt so alone there. He knew he was supposed to be meeting his new exchange family out towards the gates, but the gate was a hundred miles away it felt like. What was even worse was the fact that pretty much everything was in English, save for the signs that showed what each location was called. Thank god for the little German text under the English sign, or he knew he'd be pretty lost. He stepped out of the way of everyone, pushing a hand through his brown hair. He watched the flow of people leaving the baggage claim and decided to follow and hope that it directed him to the gate. How the hell was he expected to navigate all by himself through an American airport? 

He’d been told it would be difficult when he arrived, and his English teacher had tried to prepare him as best he could. Eren had passed most of his tests with decent marks, his teacher had requested he go to America, and his dad even had enough faith in his abilities (surprisingly) enough that he’d pay to send him away for an entire school year, but the actual application of being in America by himself while trying to just sit and focus on the words flurrying and swirling around him was making him feel frustrated and hopeless. He wasn’t as smart as he thought, it seemed.

He followed the flow of people until they started flooding through a gate. Eren glanced up to check if there was a sign, but nothing. He continued to follow the people though, pulling his suitcases, strapped to each other, and held his duffel close by. He needed quite a few things if he was going to get through an entire school year at his hosts house. The thought of an entire year away from home and his parents made his stomach turn. No matter how much mental preparation he had, he would never be ready for it. The brunet tried to shake those thoughts from his head. He needed to concentrate on finding his host family in order to not get kidnapped and killed on his first day in America.

Relief washed over him when he realized the flood of people were all heading towards a main entrance. The bustle was stressful, but he knew that if he followed towards the front entrance he would find his host family. Unfortunately, he didn't know much about his host family besides that it was the Arlert's, and it was a grandfather and his grandson. He knew the grandsons name, Armin, but had hardly talked to him. They sent maybe three or four letters back and forth in the months leading up to the trip, when Eren was first assigned to that family. He knew what Armin looked like though, which was a plus.

He clung to his baggage as he walked down the section off aisle, thankful that the people seemed more spread out in this area. He looked for a sign with his name on it, or at least blond hair. The blond hair seemed like the easiest to notice out of the crowd of people waiting along the ropes. Eren rolled his luggage forward, walking slowly in order to look all over. When he didn’t see anything he was hoping for, he continued forward. He was getting confused now, were they even here? He hoped to god that they were, that he was just missing them somehow. He walked closer to the front doors, all glass and all tall. He waited a few feet away from where the deep red and grey carpet met tile. And then he saw the blond. He had been watching the crowd morphing, and saw the blond head, and then there was a clearing and he saw Armin and his grandfather. Armin was short, as was his grandfather. The youngest of the two was wearing a light pink shirt, almost salmon, with loose skinny jeans and a pair of converse that Eren could tell even from where he was that they were beat up and ripping. His face was sunburnt on his nose and cheeks, and his blond hair framed his face and made the red stand out. His grandfather had on a collared lime green shirt, the top button open and showing his white undershirt and a few silver chest hairs. The older man’s shorts looked khaki, and stood out against his tan skin, down to his leather sandals. Both of the boys were tan, and Eren assumed it was just because of the ending of summer, evident by the tan lines that Eren spotted on Armin’s knees, tan going to pale white. Eren grabbed his bags again, and started towards them. He got within three feet before Armin noticed him, and suddenly he was being grabbed.

 

“Eren! You made it safe!” Armin squealed, hugging him tightly and trying to jump at the same time.

 

“Ah, y-yes?” Eren said, holding his arms out in the air, not quite sure what to do with them.

 

“We’re glad you made it, my boy. Come, let’s get out of the way, Armin.” Armin’s grandfather said, trying to usher them to the side.

 

Eren furrowed his brow. He was confused and uncomfortable. What the hell was he supposed to do with the teen wrapped around him? Pushing him away seemed plausible.

 

Armin let go, just as he was about to push the blond off. “Sorry, I’m just so excited. I’m so happy to see you!” He said, his voice shaking just as his hands were as they held Eren.

 

“Thank you?” Eren said, not quite sure what to say in this situation. Well, he knew what he wanted to say, but didn’t know if it would come out the way he thought it would. Constructing sentences on the fly was always difficult.

 

“It’s nice to meet you, Eren. I’m Armin, and this if my grandfather. You can call him grandpa, too.”

 

“Nice to meet you.” The brunet breathed, relieved that Armin said exactly what he’d been looking to say.

 

“Let’s get you home, I’m sure you’d like to unpack.” The old man said, smiling wide and his wrinkles folding.

 

All Eren could do was nod in agreement. Even if it was only a little past five in the evening where Eren had just arrived, back in Germany it was already eleven at night and he was tired. He knew he should have slept on the plane. Instead, no, he was totally stupid and played dumb horror games on his laptop, messed around with his Animal Crossing, and practiced catching popcorn with his mouth for nine hours. Oh, and he studied his English text book. By studying, he meant he stared at the vocabulary lists for about an hour without practicing them. He just wanted to soak them in. Maybe if he stared at the words long enough, they’d float into his brain and just say there forever. Then he wouldn’t seem so stupid when he got to America. He was really nervous, even though he knew there would be other exchange students at the same school. Although, he was the only one from Germany. He was definitely going to be fucked. Eren patted his pocket to feel if his phone was still there, and was relieved. Thank god, it had his German to English dictionary on it. Also, which the brunet guessed was at least a bit important, his mom told him he had to text her every day.

Armin and his grandfather started off towards the front doors, all glass panels with warm orange light pouring through. Armin lagged behind, offering repeatedly to help Eren with his bags, that way he could relax more. No matter how much Eren refused, the blond still got a hold of his duffel. Armin decided it was a victory.

As they left through the doors, Eren felt like the breath was just knocked out of him. He’d been to a few bigger cities before, and he’d obviously been the Berlin before, but this felt completely different. While Berlin had a lot of historical buildings, Trost had nothing like that. Outside of the airport, they were faced with a long street of cars. A ways away, over the cars and passed a chain linked fence, Eren could see a mess of blinking lights. They blinked red, on and off in different times, and he couldn’t tell what exactly it was that caused the blinking. Armin must have seen Eren staring, because he nudged him and smiled.

 

“Those are windmills. They help with electricity here.” The blond explained, and followed behind his grandfather.

 

Eren nodded in understanding. Windmills. He pulled out his phone to double check that he was sure of the meaning, as was habit for him. His thumb swiped over the screen, tapping in the passcode, 3-7-3-6. The brunet typed it in how it sounded, hoping to god it was the correct spelling, and was pleased. Windmühle, he was familiar with that, but they sure as hell didn’t look like those. 

Luckily, as the three of them walked towards the parking lots and the sun began setting further, Eren noticed the the distant windmills so far were the only different things he’d really encountered besides the language, but he’d anticipated that. Obviously. 

The school that Eren went to back at home didn’t teach as much English as the other high schools that he’d been to, so he struggled with English. Sure, other schools were required to start at about third grade. Yeah, he started then too. But then he was pulled out of school in the fourth grade, was homeschooled and learned next to no English from his father, and then was dumped into his freshman year of English classes and since then he’d been desperately trying to learn as much as he could. Eren was one of the lucky students who apparently tried hard enough for his teacher to talk to his mom and dad about studying abroad. They sure as hell had the money, and that’s where the brunet found himself. America. Learning English via complete immersion. His teacher did say that complete immersion would be the best for him, and he’d be totally fluent by the time he came back home to Shiganshina the following year at the end of June. It gave him plenty of time, considering he’d arrived mid August. It was almost an entire year that he’d be away from his parents and his friends back home. It was making his stomach hurt. Even though Eren had highly doubted that he’d be one-hundred percent fluent, and still did, he hoped he’d be able to speak it fluently, just because he wanted to show off to his mom what he’d learned. He wanted to show all of his classmates how hard he’d worked and what a great experience he’d had. Most of all, the brunet just wanted to show that even though he was gone for a while, he could still pull out on top and out rank even Jean. He was smart enough to be on their level. The teen glanced over to Armin, who was beside him now. Eren had a feeling that Armin would be more than happy to help with learning. Eren stuffed his phone back into his pocket after locking it, and paid attention to his surroundings.

The pavement on the sidewalk had gone from smooth and new looking to cracked and broken, grass poking through as they followed deeper into the parking lot. Armin was chewing at his bottom lip, the tip of his pink tongue dipping out to smooth over the worried flesh. He didn’t seem anxious or nervous, but Eren could be mistaken already.

 

“Are you right?” Eren asked, hoping to whatever god there was out there that he didn’t sound stupid?

 

“Right about what?” Armin asked, looking over at the brunet.

 

Eren thought for a moment, trying to just sort out the blonds words. Shit, what was the English word for lippen again? It’s a cognate, he was pretty sure. At least, part of it was. He quickly ran over the stupid body part song, only to realize lips weren’t even a fucking part of it. Fuck elbow, he didn’t need to know what that word meant. Lips were more important than elbows, he was pretty sure.

 

“Your lip.” Eren said, pointing at his own mouth and tapping his lips just to make sure his point was getting across. “You’re biting.”

 

“Oh, yeah.” Armin said, smiling shyly. “It’s a weird habit. I’m fine though.”

 

“Yes.” Eren said, nodding. He kept his head down to walk to the car.

 

They stepped off of the sidewalk and onto the asphalt, the sound of Eren’s rolling suitcase changing as they made their way towards the back of the parking lot. They walked passed rows of cars, until the cars started becoming sparse and only a few here and there. The group approached a rusty, burgundy colored truck that looked like it might just fall apart if they all got in it. 

The rust had completely eaten away at the front and back bumper, and had formed small holes on the hood. The bed of the truck had holes through the bottom of it, and Eren was too nervous to put his bags back there. The door to the bed had apparently “fallen off”, according to Armin’s hurried commentary, and they would have to strap Eren’s bags with a bungee cord. There was no way in hell. He’d prefer to be cramped as hell in the cabin than lose any of his luggage. So, he stuffed in his bags, and scooted in after them. Armin looked as if he was debating on whether or not he should sit in the front with his grandfather or in the back with Eren, and decided on the latter, sliding in next to Eren and shaking in excitement. 

 

“If you’re hungry, grandpa brought some money for us to stop and get food. It’s kind of a long drive cuz we live on the other side of Trost. I hope you don’t mind, it’ll be like forty-five minutes.” Armin explained, reaching into the front seat to paw at a cooler. "We also have sandwiches. You want one?"

 

Eren shook his head. Armin's grandfather climbed into the truck with some effort, gripping the steering wheel and yanking on his seatbelt to hoist himself in. Once seated, the three buckled in, and waited for the unsettlingly rusted truck to roar to life and pull out of the parking space.

 

“I’m really glad you’re here, Eren.” Armin said again, smiling over at him. It seemed the smile had been plastered to his face since Eren had arrived.

 

The brunet nodded. He was genuinely excited to be there as well, but he felt awkward around the two. This was going to be a long school year, and school hadn’t even started.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren settles in at the Arlert's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holla i updated on thursday heck yeah  
> also it's hard to write armin's grandpa because i don't know how grandfathers act, it confuses me, so he's very sparse if at all in this chapter  
> also you learn more about eren's backstory stuff in this chapter, holler 
> 
> ummm in other news, this is rly easy to write, i just need time

The car ride was amazing. Eren had lived in a decently sized town in Shiganshina, but Trost was completely different. The sun had set fully at that point, and as the rickety truck sped through the city, Eren watched as the fields surrounding the airport bled into the industrial districts, which melted into financial and business districts, and they drove past skyscrapers and street carts. They drove even further though, continuing on and on as the blur of dazzling lights streaked past them and the purple haze of the sky turned darker and darker. Stars began to peek out and wink, the moon just barely bright enough to show. Soon, the lights ebbed away and all they were left with was the sky and smaller buildings, houses perhaps, slipping past Eren’s vision. And then the docks came. At first, he only spotted one, a long row of wooden slats and a few beams for support trailing off into shallow waters of a weeded area. Then, the docks kept showing. One here, one over there. The boardwalk connected a bunch, and different shopping areas cropped up again. And the water, Eren assumed it was a lake because they were nowhere near the ocean. It couldn’t be the ocean, it was impossible. But it sure seemed big enough to be. It stretched on and on, and he could see the stars reflecting off the surface of the water, and the face of the moon seemed to finally brighten as it hit the soothing waves. The truck took a turn.

It took a turn away from the water, and Eren had to keep himself from turning around in his seat. He kept his eyes focused on the outside. Houses again, more and more houses. Small businesses, more houses, and then it became much more suburban. Cul-de-sac’s were littered every other street, and it made Eren bounce his leg in excitement. His stomach flipped with the nerves, and he was glad he’d declined a sandwich from Armin earlier. He quickly flicked through his phone settings to adjust his clock to the time displayed on the trucks radio. The brunet felt like they were getting close, what with all of the houses showing. And he was right.

The truck pulled into one of the many cul-de-sac’s, and slowed down. It curved around the circle, and then creaked into one of the driveways, paved smoothly and nice and white. Moonlight, although still dim, made the path from the driveway up to the front door visible. The Arlert’s had a lot of decorations on their lawn. From the mess of wind chimes completely taking over every empty spot on their porch, to the tiny rows of flowers sitting low to the ground, it looked cluttered. There were little color changing orbs sitting on holders that lined the pathway, there were little garden gnomes hidden in the flower beds, and there was a small banner hanging directly above the front door, the off-yellow light of their porch light illuminating the words “Welcome, Eren!”. The brunet couldn’t help but grin. He thought the decorations, although excessive, were pretty cool. Even their mailbox, sitting at the edge of their lawn, was decorated with more of the glowing orbs sitting at its base.

 

“Hey, um, I’m gonna grab your bags and then we can go in and I’ll show you your room.” Armin said, getting out of the truck. 

 

Eren pulled away from the sight and nodded, getting out as well. He ran a hand through his hair, tousling it even more, and fumbled with his hands for a moment before shoving them into his pockets. 

 

“Okay, so we have a dog. I’m pretty sure I said something about him in one of our letters before, but he might jump on you so I don’t want you to be scared or anything.” Armin said, pulling luggage out of the truck and bringing it up to the front door.

 

“I like dogs.” Eren said, smiling awkwardly.

 

“Oh, that’s good! We also have a cat, but I think she’ll be fine. She usually stays in grandpa’s room anyways. Um, but Titan is always out in the living room and stuff, so he’ll come meet us at the door.”

 

Eren nodded again and grabbed one of his bags, following behind Armin who waited for his grandfather to find the house key, the ring of keys jingling as he searched. The lock clicked and he pushed open the door. As promised, the clicking of nails skidding rapidly over hardwood approached the hallway they entered, and Eren saw the golden retriever wiggling in excitement and the return of his owners. When he saw Eren, he began barking. No amount of shushing from Armin made him stop, and Armin quickly made his way deeper into the house, beckoning for Eren to follow so Titan would be quiet again. The shorter boy turned into a different hallway and then made his way towards a set of stairs.

 

“So, after we put your bags in your room I can show you the house. Or, I mean, i-if you’re too tired you can sleep and I’ll show you in the morning. Up here is where all the bedrooms are, except grandpa’s. His room is downstairs cuz the stairs hurt his knees.” Armin explained and picked the rolling luggage up carefully as not to knock anything over.

 

The walls were level with the top of the staircase, and along the ledge there were little knick-knacks, like figurines and little statues of animals. There were even little stacks of books that some statues rested on. Eren eyed all of them, pulling his things close to him so he wouldn’t accidentally hit any of them. There was a window facing the top of the stairs. Upstairs, surrounding the open staircase was railing, and then in the short hallway space there were doors. Eren turned, holding the railing. On the right side, there was the deep brown door that was void of any decoration on the outside of it, and on the left was what he assumed was Armin’s door. It had a beaded curtain over the door with blue and translucent beads that stopped an inch before the ground. Directly ahead of Eren was another door, hanging open to show it was the bathroom. Armin veered to the right and opened the door, rolling the suitcases over the hardwood. The sound was muted as he entered, and Eren assumed there was carpeting inside. As he followed behind, he found he was correct. 

The room was painted an off-white with grey carpeting. There was a twin sized bed with a red comforter tucked and made on top of it, the black pillows resting on top pushed against the furthest wall, near a window. The foot of the bed sat directly underneath the window, and a blanket chest was pushed against it. On the right wall there was a light brown wardrobe, drawers built in and a closet opening above them. A desk sat in the the closest left corner, the desk chair pushed in and a desk lamp against the wall. 

 

“So, this is your room. Mine is right across the way, and the bathroom is like right next to here. Grandpa wanted me to let you know you can make the room as comfy as you wanted, but just don’t put any nails in the wall or anything. Thumb tacks are okay though.” Armin said, setting Eren’s bags near his bed. Eren did the same and sat on the bed.

 

“Do you… do you wanna just go to bed, or are you going to stay up for a while?” Armin asked, biting his lip again.

 

“I’ll stay up. Seeing the house, right?” Eren asked, knowing the words that were coming out of his mouth probably weren’t what he was meaning to say, but hoping that the point would get across to the blond.

 

“Yeah, come on. I’ll show you my room and then the downstairs.” 

 

__ __

 

Armin had shown him his room, which was pretty heavily decorated, almost like the front of the house was. He had lots of things hanging from his ceiling, maps were decorating almost the entirety of his white walls, and he had a grey carpet just like in Eren’s room. His bed was blue, and there were significantly more pillows in his bed. It looked like the pillows and the combination of the amount of stuffed animals the blond had took up more room than he himself did, if the dent in the stuffed animal sea indicated anything. From his ceiling, he had at least four different models of the solar system hanging, from what Eren could tell, and he had kites, model planes, and there was an 8-inch zeppelin. On his desk, he had a mess of books and papers with no real order from the looks of it, and there were a few pens on the ground. There was a different table, one Eren didn’t have in his room, and on top of it was an aquarium with a few different types of small fish.

He’d also shown Eren the downstairs. The living room was cluttered with furniture and dog toys, which Armin was picking up as he walked, explaining he’d put them away before they left but that Titan must have taken them out again. He was shown the kitchen, which had a ton of hanging plants with herbs and such in them. There was another bathroom, and Armin’s grandpa had his room downstairs as well, along with another room Armin called the library, which had, of course, different bookshelves filled, but also had a desk with another mess of papers. Armin said it had doubled as grandfathers study a long time ago but they had never really cleaned up after he retired. 

At Eren’s home, they had something similar. Even though it did double as a study, it was much tidier and was still in use. Grisha, Eren’s father, was a doctor and spent a lot of his time at home in his study. When Eren was pulled from school in the fourth grade to take care of his mother when she was diagnosed with skin cancer, his father had done all of his home schooling from his study, where Eren was supposed to spend the day doing his class work. English wasn’t a part of the curriculum, and so he wasn’t required to learn it. At least, he wasn’t until he returned to high school. That was after his mom had gotten better though. Eren wouldn’t have gone back to school unless his mother was better. He didn’t really mind it, besides the fact that they didn’t have much connection to the outside world in the little cottage his family had out in the woods. Satellite didn’t connect, the radio was almost always just static, and internet was choppy. So local television was their only real connection, but Eren didn’t mind because he had his mother. Since then, she’d gotten better and had gotten a new job, and Eren had gone back to school.

The two boys returned upstairs and made to go to their rooms. Armin stopped in his doorway, turning back to Eren.

“Hey, tomorrow, do you wanna meet some of my friends? Two of them have other exchange students too, so you’re not the only one. They live around here so we can just walk.” Armin asked, smiling meekly.

“Sure.”  
“Cool, alright. Well, goodnight, Eren. I hope you sleep well.” 

“Yes. Goodnight, Armin.” And with that, both doors closed.

Eren shuffled over to his bed, toeing off his sneakers and pushing them under his bed. He laid back and sighed. He felt like a rock, and the stress just kept eating at his brain. He was nervous to make friends with Armin, even though he was so nice. He pulled out his phone, signing in again with the pass of his thumb and the tap of his code, and quickly sent his mom a text telling her that he loved her and he had gotten there safely. The brunet knew she was already asleep back home in Shiganshina, but hoped she still got the message in the morning when she went to work. He looked at the other people he had texted in his recent history, and rolled over. He wasn’t going to be seeing any of his friends for a while, and it made him feel sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yoooo updating again hopefully next thursday, i joined tennis team so i have very little time to get on the computer and shit so eh w/e hope you like it
> 
> Srsly guys I love comments and kudos.
> 
> come yell at me at gorypalabra.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren meets Armin's gang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well i'm feeling rly generous today so you get a chapter early (jk i'm worried i'll be busy tomorrow so i'm posting it a day early for just in cases)
> 
> yooo like usual comments are appreciated :))) also please excuse any accidental memes i add in there i don't know if i deleted them all i was in a weird mood on saturday and sabotaged my writing by adding a tfw meme every other line DD;

The next morning, Eren woke up late. Very late. He didn’t know if it would be much of an issue, but light was pouring into his room even through the blinds. He checked his phone and the numbers, 2:36, glared at him. The brunet hoped to god that it wasn’t a bad thing to be waking up so late in their house. He quickly hooked his legs out of the bed and hurried out to the hall, wearing basketball shorts and a too large shirt that he’d fell asleep in. He padded down the stairs, stopping at the bottom to try and remember which way the living room was. He turned left at the end of the hall and found the living room. There were definitely more people than just Armin and his grandfather in the living room, and Eren froze in shock.

Armin and a few other people all sat on the different couches. A lot of them were blond, like Armin. Armin quickly stood, smiling and pulling his blue shirt down over his bottom.

 

“Morning, Eren! Well, afternoon but, yeah, you get it. Um, sorry, everyone came over a little early cuz we didn’t know when you’d wake up.” He said, gesturing to the group. “Oh, here, I’ll introduce you.”

 

Armin gestured to a lanky, tall looking blond person with his hair pushed back out of his face. Armin grinned a little wider and bit at his lip. “This is Erwin. He lives right next door. He’s also got an exchange student living with him for this school year too. Actually, his exchange student is Levi, and that’s Levi.” He said, pointing over to a raven haired boy who had his knees pulled up to his chest and was sitting towards the corner of the couch. “He’s from Portugal.”

 

“And then, that’s Annie. She’s going to have an exchange student too at some point in the next few days. She hasn’t flown in yet.”

 

Eren nodded and glanced back at Levi. Portugal, huh? It was pretty far from Germany. Levi didn’t look very Portuguese though. He was all creamy skin and sharp features. His hair was shaved into an undercut and it looked nice, the longest part of his hair falling just in line with his eyes. It made Eren reach up and run a hand through his own, much longer hair that reached his jaw line. He remembered that he was supposed to have gotten a haircut before he left for his trip, but that his mom cancelled at the last minute saying Eren needed to pack. Really, she had just wanted to see him leave the same way she hoped he’d return. Not with a new hair cut she’d only had a day or two to get used to before sending him off. That was fine with him, he knew how to trim his own hair, even if it was a little uneven at times. 

Levi’s eyes were trained on Eren, looking him over for a second before going back to staring at the fabric of Armin’s couch. Eren looked away from him and observed the others. The lanky blond, Levi’s host, was Erwin. His cheekbones were prominent and he had a strong chin, and he was really tall. Armin had sat down next to him, leaning against him. Annie looked uninterested with everything. That was the first thing Eren noticed, well, besides her nose. She was pretty though. Too bad she wasn’t really Eren’s type. He wasn’t all that into girls anyways. Like, at all. 

 

“Hey, you hungry?” Armin asked, holding onto Erwin’s arm.

 

“Yes.” Eren said, quick and pretty desperate. He was starving.

 

“We’re going to order pizza soon, is that okay? Or should I make like a legit lunch.” 

 

“Pizza.” Eren responded, smiling meekly. 

 

“Oki doke. Do you guys want anything specific or can I just get pepperoni?” Armin asked, reaching for the phone on the beaten up coffee table.

 

“I’m vegetarian.” Levi said, voice mumbled against his arm.

 

Armin looked back and stared for a minute, biting his lip again. It really was a habit, Eren noticed.

 

“Oh, do you want me to order something else then?”

 

“I don’t eat dairy. I can pick off the cheese.” Levi spoke.

 

“Are you sure? I can order something else for you, or like, make you a salad or something? We’ve got stuff for it.”

 

“It’s alright. Cheese pizza is fine for me.”

 

Eren stared for a moment. How the hell did he know how to speak English so well. Sure, his accent was a little heavy, much like how Eren’s was thick and hard to wade through, but Levi knew what he was talking about. When did Portuguese kids start learning English? Was it even required? Whatever it was, Eren was jealous as fuck. He didn’t even have to pause to think about what he was going to say. Eren felt like he took hours. He needed Levi to teach him. Well, maybe not Levi, he looked a little scary and Eren found him too attractive and knew he wouldn’t focus on listening to Levi. He was small and compact looking, but also looked like he was ready to murder something. Or someone, Eren hadn’t decided which one was more appropriate. 

While caught up in his thoughts, Armin and Levi had settled on the order issue and Armin had stepped into the kitchen to make the call. So that left him in a room, awkwardly, with a bunch of strangers. Erwin tapped his fingers on his knee cap and looked back and forth from the three others. He cleared his throat.

 

“So, uh, Eren. How old are you?”

 

Age. He knew that one. “I am sixteen years old.” He'd done it a thousand times for the stupid 'to be' conjugations.

 

“Ah, okay. I’m seventeen. Levi’s… I think he’s seventeen too, right?” Erwin said, looking over at the raven for confirmation. He received a nod. “Annie is sixteen too.”

 

Annie was the stoic blonde in the armchair. She made Eren a little nervous. She and Levi both looked ready to destroy at any second and he was pretty sure that would make anyone nervous.

 

“Alright, pizza is ordered. Um, we’re going to have to go pick it up though. So, Erwin do you wanna come with me when it’s time?” Armin asked, stepping back into the room and setting the clunky phone back onto the coffee table.

 

“Of course.”

 

“Do any of you wanna come?” Armin asked, looking at Eren specifically.

 

“I need to go home soon. Today is laundry.” Annie said, now tapping away at her phone. When had she pulled that out? “I don’t think I’ll be able to stay for food.”

 

“Oh, really? That sucks.” Armin said, frowning a bit. “That’s alright though, I’m sure Erwin can eat your share.” He laughed.

 

Erwin blushed a bit and swatted Armin’s knee, which made Armin giggle and lean back against him when he plopped into his seat. 

 

“I can stay for a little bit longer. Maybe five minutes, max.”

 

“Ah, it’s okay if you need to go now, we understand.” Armin said, smiling again.

 

“Alright. If you don’t mind. Nice to meet you, Eren, Levi. See you guys later.” She said, getting up from the armchair and pulling on the tennis shoes she had sitting against the side. Eren hadn’t noticed them before.

 

She walked towards the hall, and after a minute or so they heard the door click. Through the unbearable silence. The silence that was making Eren feel more that a little nervous and kind of sick. It made him feel like he needed to speak up, but his stomach growled loudly before he could start any conversation. Armin stared for a minute before giggling. 

 

“You want something to tide you over with?” He asked. Eren shook his head, but got up nonetheless.

 

“I would like water.” He said, turning to head in the vague direction he remembered the kitchen to be in from the little tour the night before.

 

He found it easy enough off the memory, and stood in the center of the kitchen, wary of the hanging plants so he wouldn’t hit his head. At 170 cm, the plants were definitely going to smash him in the face if he wasn’t careful. Even Armin had to duck on a few the night before, and Armin wasn’t all that much shorter than him. He guessed he was maybe 5 cm shorter. Not much. He made his way to the light wood cabinets on the far wall, and opened them up randomly, hoping to find a glass of some sort. He found mismatched bowls and plates in one, a bunch of colanders (really, who needed six collindars?), and another useless mess of assorted sized pans. Finally, on the last cabinet of the right wall, he found the glasses. They, like all the other dishes, were completely mismatched, and there wasn’t a single pair of glasses that matched in shape, size, or color in there. He grabbed the first one he saw, frosted glass with clear snowflakes on it. Now to find water. The sink was a good bet, but he also saw the fridge had a water dispenser on it. He went from one to the other, staring at them, trying to decide. What if the sink was bad to drink from? What if the fridge didn’t have any water in it? He leaned against the counter, staring back and forth for a bit longer before Levi walked in. Quickly, he straightened up and stopped slouching.

 

“How long does it take you to get some fucking water, seriously.” Levi huffed, heading straight for Eren.

 

He looked mad, and when Eren realized he was getting close, he stepped away. Levi grabbed the glass from his hand and stomped to the fridge, slamming it into the little pressure lever that dispensed the liquid.

 

“Is it really that hard to get water?” He asked, bringing the full glass back to Eren and handing it to him. 

 

Eren just, sort of, stared blankly at him for a minute. “Hello?” Levi waved in his face. “Earth to idiot.”

 

That word, Eren recognized easy. “I am not an idiot.” He retorted, a common phrase he’d learned from the constant barrage of insults (idiot included) that Jean regularly threw his way.

 

“He speaks.” Levi said, sarcastic. He looked Eren up and down again and reached up, hitting the ends of Eren’s hair with his fingertips. “Jesus, is everything on you long as fuck, or is your dick the exception?” 

 

What the hell? Eren stared at him for a moment, not wanting to even begin to understand what Levi was saying about his dick. “I will go back.” He said, starting for the hall again to go to the living room. 

 

“You sound like a robot, relax a little more.” Levi huffed again, watching Eren leave. Eren was glad he couldn’t understand.

 

He sat back down on the carpet, setting his glass on the coffee table. He had it there for a second, maybe, before Armin hissed.

 

“No, you have to use a coaster. Grandpa gets mad if we don’t. It makes rings on the table and he doesn’t like them.” He said, sitting forward and reaching under the coffee table to grab a cork coaster, which he set under Eren’s drink.

 

It was a little surprising, considering the state of disarray the entire house was in and he was only concerned with the coffee table. The coffee table was already beaten up pretty badly, scratches littered all over it, teething marks that Eren assumed was from the dog. Speaking of the dog, where was he? He hadn’t seen the furball all morning, well, afternoon actually. The brunet looked around, leaning back to see if he could see any of the doors in the house, hoping they’d clue him in. Armin raised an eyebrow.

 

“What’re you looking for?”

 

“The dog.”

 

“Oh, Titan? He’s in my room. Why, do you want me to bring him out?” Armin asked, moving one foot off of the couch.

 

Eren shook his head and reached for his glass of water. Levi walked out of the hallway and moved back to sit down on the far end of the couch. Eren eyed him for a moment before flitting back to his oh-so interesting cup. He was a little too nervous to look at Levi, especially after that painfully awkward conversation (could he even call it that?) that took place in the kitchen. God, every time he heard anyone talking he was reminded just how much he sucked at English. 

 

“So, Eren. Where in Germany do you live?” Erwin asked, smiling a bit.

 

He thought for a moment. “Shiganshina.”

 

“What’s it like?” Armin asked, pressing his cheek to Erwin’s shoulder.

 

Another pause. He can do this. “What?” Nope, he couldn’t.

 

“What was Shiganshina like? What did you do there?”

 

“Oh, uh, it is small. A lot of trees. I live out Shinganshina.” Eren said, gesturing with his hands to try and convey his message. Ah, the wonders of body language.

 

“Oh, okay. Trost is pretty big. What about you, Levi? Where did you live?” Armin asked this time.

 

“Lisbon. It was busy, bigger than Trost.” Levi hummed, back in the sitting position with his mouth against his arms.

 

The silence hit again and Eren couldn’t sit still. His fingers tapped on his knee and he stared at his glass more. He hoped to god that they’d be able to hold a steady conversation later on. Maybe once Eren was actually able to speak without sounding like a first grader it’d help. He guessed they’d all find out later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as usual guys, comments are appreciated af and i loveeee kudos!! come check me out at gorypalabra.tumblr.com, i love talking to you guys!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Armin and Eren bonding time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yayyyy it's thursday!! one more day til spring break for me <3 <3 maybe then i can write the next two or three chapters :ooo
> 
> welp i know it seems like eren's understanding of english is really splotchy like it's good and then bad sometimes but i'm basing it off my experience on learning another language like some things, if i hear them it takes me a minute to process, or i just don't understand them, and others i'm just like hell yes i know this sentence

The next week went by slowly. Very slowly. Eren mostly slept a lot, and when he wasn’t sleeping, he would follow Armin around wherever he went, and play his stupid Duolingo app on his phone to study. Even then, his English wasn’t improving, even though he’d been surrounded by it for an entire week. He figured soaking it up would help with his translational skills and it did, but not in the way he expected. 

The day he’d arrived was a Sunday. Levi and Erwin, along with another person who Eren had completely forgotten the name of came over Monday. Tuesday, Eren had slept in again until about eleven, and then sent out an insane amount of texts to his friends. A few were sent to his mom, telling her that he was alright still. Wednesday he woke up early enough to video chat with his mother, who sat outside of her work for an extra hour to talk to her son. He was thankful. Thursday was another slow day, and he’d followed Armin around the house while he did chores, and listened to Armin’s mindless chatter about different things, most of which he couldn’t follow. Friday he spent the day in Armin’s room with him, and they both messed around with video games, showing each other different apps they had on their phones, and Eren popped open his laptop that he hadn’t touched since his flight. Eren was ecstatic to find out that even Armin had a 3DS, and although neither of them had the same games, he still was excited to get a street pass from him and expressed it through lots of smiling and “yeah!”s. 

Some dreadful news though, was brought up at dinner on Saturday night. Eren had to join a sport. Armin said that it didn’t have to be an athletic team, but it was highly encouraged at Trost that you enroll in at least an athletic team. Academic teams were deemed a little too hard for exchange students, what with the language barrier, and it made Eren feel insulted. He was sure that by the time spring came around he’d be able to most definitely join one of those teams. But for now, he was stuck on an athletic team. Armin tried explaining the list that was sent in the mail, which was included with Eren’s class schedule for the first trimester, and Armin’s schedule came too in a separate envelope.

The list had a mess of fall sports, and the list shortened significantly for winter, and then broadened again in the spring category. In fall, he’d narrowed the list down to some things he’d be able to tolerate based on Armin’s descriptions on how often he remembered practices were, and how difficult they were. As badly as Eren wanted to do something hard, he didn’t know if he’d be struggling in school yet, so he didn’t want to weigh himself down with a time consuming sport. The things he’d narrowed it down to were cross country, which he was thinking might not be a good idea, soccer, and then volleyball. Armin had also mentioned that if he joined the marching band, it’d still count. Even though the brunet did play an instrument, he sucked at it. He over complicated the trombone movements and blared too much. Cross country involved way too much running, he’d finally decided. So did soccer. Volleyball was the only thing left on that list. He really didn’t want to do it, he could feel it. He didn’t want to do any sport. Not a single one looked like it’d be fun or even amusing to do. He looked over at Armin.

The blond and him were sitting at the dining table, and Armin had a piece of his hair pulled over his nose, staring at the page. He let go, and the piece swayed back into the rest of the butterscotch colored hair. He eyes darted over to Eren’s.

 

“You know, I’m on the Science Olympiad team and I’m in the mathematics club. Are you good at math?” Armin asked, setting his hands on the table. “Do you like math?

 

Eren nodded. He was pretty okay at math, he had an average grade of at least an A or A minus in that class, so he wasn’t terrible. “Yes.”

 

“Maybe you can join the mathematics club. There’s not a lot of English in there. Like, if you’re not good at story problems then you won’t get placed in that group.” Even though Armin knew Eren wasn’t that great at understanding his quick words, he knew Eren realized he was talking more to himself than the brunet. “Do you like science?”

 

Eren shook his head and scrunched his nose. Hell no he did not like science. Biology class was a nightmare for him. Armin laughed a bit.

 

“Okay, okay, no science stuff for you then. But, we might wanna look at your schedule. Erwin and Levi said they wanna hang out tomorrow, so we can see what classes we all have together.” The blond reached for the other papers on the table.

 

“You’ve got easy classes. Do these match up with what you were doing in Germany?” 

 

Eren looked over the list. Familiar words were there, and even though they were in English, Eren was so pleased he could understand over half. American History, English, Physics, Geometry, and then he closed the day off with a rousing hour of an art class, Intro to Drawing.

 

“I do calculus. No geometry.” Eren said, making a cross over the little label of Geometry in the hour four slot. 

 

“You do calculus? Gosh, dude you...I don’t do calculus. I’m going to be in statistics.”

 

Eren nodded. “I am in grade eleven.” 

 

“Isn’t that just junior year? We have twelve grades.”

 

“No. I have thirteen.”

 

“Wow. Um, what’s that then? Like, does that mean you’re a senior?” 

 

Eren shrugged. “I don’t know.”

 

“Well, Levi’s a junior like me. Erwin is a senior. Levi is in grade 11 in America, and Erwin is in grade 12. But Levi’s school is way different I guess, I don’t know.” Armin started rambling, even though Eren couldn’t understand. “Like, he was telling me about it last week before you came. His school technically stopped when he was in like, the ninth grade, but then he passed an exam thing and got into his secondary school. I guess secondary school is like high school but it’s not mandatory or anything. But Levi said he was trying to get into a college or university, so he has to go to secondary school to do that. Or maybe you don’t? I don’t know, he was saying so much about it.”

 

Eren just nodded along with what Armin was saying, and the blond just kept going. He didn’t know Armin could talk so much.

 

“But like, here we just kinda go from kindergarten to twelfth grade, and then you can go to college or a university or whatever you want ‘cause you get a diploma which pretty much lets you go wherever. Well, not really wherever. You have to have like a really high GPA to go wherever you want, and I’m trying to have a really high GPA because I don’t know where I want to go yet, I just want to have every option open though. Grandpa wants me to get my basics here in Trost, like at the community college here, but then he wants me to go overseas. But, ya’know, grandpa is getting kinda old, so I don’t even know if he’ll be here when I finish my basics. Do you know where you’re going to college at?” He tapped on the table to get Eren’s attention again, knowing the brunet was only staring off into space. “Are you going to college later?”

 

Eren thought for a moment. He didn’t know that word, so he pulled out his phone, trying to type it out. “Please say it again.” He said, which he had rehearsed for a while after learning it through Google translate a few days before.

 

“Are you going to college?”

 

Eren tapped it in, trying his best on the spelling. College, it was easy to spell. At least he thought. C-a-l-a-j. Nope, nothing, and his translator didn’t even attempt to correct it. Eren pointed the screen at Armin. “What?”

 

The blond giggled. “Here, I’ll type it.” He pushed it in, and Eren felt the recognition in the German words the translator spat out.

 

“Yes! My father say doctor. I say no.”

 

Armin hummed for a minute, thinking. “Hey, do you want me to help you learn more? Do you know preterite and present progressive stuff? Scratch that. Eren, can I teach you English?”

 

“Yes.” The brunet said, hurried. “Yes, I do not know English.”

 

The smaller male blew a few strands of hair from his face. “Okay, we can start later on then. Sound good? Maybe tomorrow Levi and Erwin will wanna help too.”

 

Eren nodded, he desperately needed help. He smiled at Armin, biting back at his lips to keep from smiling too wide. Armin returned with his honey-sweet, warm smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo yo yo as usual i absolutely adore comments and even if i don't respond, i still read them and smile like all day <333 kudos are a+ too!!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little more Armin and Eren bonding time, a couple snaps, and some one-sided fights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eep i'm so sorry for not updating yesterday!! and on top of that, this is a short chapter ;;
> 
> i've just been so so super busy this spring break, and then i've been playing fire emblem until i beat it (woot woot, i beat it and cried for almost all of thursday!!) and then i got persona q and have been playing that too because that game is hard af for me and games that make me want to punch them are apparently something i'm way into
> 
> ;; hopefully i'll be updating regularly next thursday but no promises

They had studied for quite a while. Armin stayed up later than he usually did, going until one in the morning, flipping through pages of Eren’s English textbook, almost burning out his printer while trying to print ‘fun’ worksheets he’d found on the Internet, and over all just messing around with Eren. The week had been long for Eren, but he felt closer to Armin. Even though they weren’t very good at holding a conversation, Eren had learned how physical the blond was. During their study session, when they laid on the floor together, Armin had leaned almost completely against him, or was always touching Eren somewhere, be it his arm or their feet tangled. He’d never really been that close with anyone before, but he welcomed the touch. 

He’d caused Armin to cry laughing when they both balanced pencils on their noses, and Eren accidentally stabbed himself in the eye when trying to place it there, not paying attention and flailing wildly. He learned that Armin could wiggle his ears, and his joints were flexible, or how Armin had told him he was double-jointed, evident by Armin being able to bend his hand back to touch his arm. Eren didn’t have any cool tricks to do, other than burping on command, but he had gulped so much air down that he’d started to get a stomach ache from it. But, the brunet set off the hysterics again when he’d rolled out from under his bed and knocked Armin’s glass of water clean over, spraying his book and drenching the papers spread on the ground into a soppy, dripping mess of fiber.

Eren stilled after that. Although Armin was laughing hysterically, Eren rose to his knees. He stared down at his book, water pooling in the dip of the binding, the glossy pages of the textbook wrinkling with the saturation. 

 

“Scheisse!” He yelped, grabbing it hurriedly and tipping it up to dump the pooling water, using his shirt to try and wipe away wet spots. Armin’s laughing died off quickly.

 

The paper was falling apart with the force of his rubbing, and he stopped as soon as he noticed the first rip. Tears pricked in his eyes. 

 

“V-Verdammt.” He hissed, shakily pushing the ripped page back to where it belonged. 

 

“Hey, hey, Eren it’s okay. We can use my hair dryer to dry it up, and then just tape it. It’s not that big of a deal. Calm down.” Armin assured, reaching for Eren’s hand to slow him down.

 

Eren rolled his shoulder, flicking Armin’s hand away with his. “Fass mich nicht an.”

 

“W-What? Eren, I don’t speak German.” He said, pulling his hand back and holding it to his leg.

 

“Verdammt noch mal, berühr mich nicht!” Eren shouted, holding the texbook to his chest.

 

Armin stared at him for a minute before shaking his head. “I’ll go get a towel.” He said, getting up and leaving Eren’s room.

 

__ __

 

“So he’s got a temper?” Levi asked, leaning against the edge of the counter island in Erwin’s kitchen. 

 

“I don’t know, maybe, maybe not. He just yelled at me last night. I don’t even know what he said, which makes it worse.” Armin said, playing with Erwin’s fingers on top of the counter as the three sat on the bar stools.

 

The day after the little water accident, Armin had proposed they go spend the day at Erwin’s instead of staying inside and studying. Eren silently agreed, and just followed with whatever plan Armin had. It was mostly because he felt bad for snapping at Armin the night before. After Armin came in and cleaned up the mess of floppy, wet paper and the general puddle of water, they had both just gone to separate rooms and went to bed. They didn’t speak while cleaning up, they didn’t speak the next morning, and Armin was the first one to say anything after lunch, asking if Eren would want to go see Erwin and Levi. 

 

“It was his English textbook though, so it’s probably really important that he doesn’t ruin it.” Erwin reassured, trying to excuse Eren’s anger so Armin wouldn’t feel as though it was his fault.

 

“Mhm, yeah I guess you’re right.”

 

“While we’re still on the subject of the idiot, he’s been in the bathroom for ten minutes. Did you get him lost, Erwin?” Levi asked.

 

“Just give him a little bit longer. He usually takes kinda long in there.” Armin said.

 

“Damn, does he take a shit every time he has to piss, or what?”

 

“I dunno, he just takes a while.” The short blond shrugged.

 

“Ah, there he is.” Erwin said, smiling at seeing the lanky teen in the archway of the kitchen entrance.

 

“You sure took your damn time.” Levi grumbled, resting his chin on his hand.

 

Eren stared at the three for a moment before moving to sit on the stool next to Levi again. The conversation before he’d excused himself was dry and pretty much carried on without him having to interact, and he wasn’t exactly excited to keep it up upon his return.

 

“So...uh, Eren, what kind of food do you like?” Erwin asked, attempting once again at weak conversation.

 

Eren sighed. The dull conversation began again. “Fish. Water food.” 

 

“Like, you mean seafood?”

 

“Yeah, seafood.” 

 

Silence. An awkward pause.

 

“Are you excited for school?”

 

“You’ve already asked that twice, Erwin.” Armin whispered.

 

Pause. Silence, again.

 

“Why do you take so long in the bathroom?” Levi asked, staring at the tan boy to his left. 

 

Eren squinted a bit at him. “What?”

 

“Long. Time. In. Bathroom. Why?” Levi said, making over exaggerated gestures to try and ‘help’.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“Ugh, you’re fucking terrible to talk to, you know that? If you’re going to come for an exchange program, the least you can fucking do is learn some damn English.” Levi sneered. 

 

“Levi, be nice!” Armin gasped. 

 

“No, I’ve been sitting here for an hour with this shit for brains who can’t understand a single fucking word out of my mouth, and it’s starting to piss me off a little bit.” Levi glared at the brunet. “Learn English, douche.”

 

Eren dropped his head. Learn English. As if he wasn’t already trying to. He could feel the tension in the atmosphere, the anger bristling off of the shortest male in waves. “Fuck off.” He grumbled.

 

“Woah, some actual English! What a fan-fucking-tastic job, dumbass.” Levi said, pushing away from the island in his stool, and starting off. “I’m going upstairs.”

 

And as the short man walked away, the silence fell back over the only three left. 

 

“That...was unexpected. I’m sorry, Eren.” Erwin said, rubbing at his cheek with the back of his hand for a moment before resting on his awkwardly. Almost anxiously.

 

Armin leaned forward and dropped his head to the table as a sign of him quitting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for eren's german i'm super sorry if i got anything wrong, i just typed it into google translate ;; also like someone asked me how eren would have been able to go to america through his school even with his dreadful english. basically, it's a program where you go to broaden your language studies, but that means you skip whatever grade your in that year and resume it the following year when you return to your country. another thing: there's a chinese exchange student at our school who knows barely any english but he was still able to come as a lone transfer soooo
> 
> in order for eren's german dialogue-
> 
> "Scheisse." - Shit.
> 
> "V-Verdammt." - D-Dammit.
> 
> "Fass mich nicht an." - Don't touch me.
> 
> "Verdammt noch mal, berühr mich nicht!" - Don't fucking touch me!
> 
> again, sorry if any of that is horrendously wrong ;; please let me know and help me fix any mistakes


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Awkward again, and Levi and Eren get a little more interaction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bleh another short chapter
> 
> i'm having issues writing this now that i'm super busy, so :cc that sucks balls
> 
> thanks to tiit who helped me on the german for the previous chapter <33
> 
> i hope the portuguese in this is right. it's really basic (srsly i've been trying to learn portuguese and these are all easy af phrases) and already defined p much besides the pet names but i won't worry about translating those cuz i'm lazy
> 
> thank u tennis for taking all my time up

“Mamãe...he really doesn’t understand.” Levi said, his phone cradled against his ear as he spread out over the day chair in his room.

 

“Baixo, you need to apologize to him. I told you not to start any fights.”

 

“It wasn’t a fight, mãe. I just yelled at him.”

 

“Levi Ackerman, do not make me ground you from here.”

 

“Mãe…”

 

“Don’t you dare. You go apologize to him, do you hear me?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Good. Go, now. Call me later tonight, alright? Eu te amo, meu anjo.”

 

“Eu tambem te amo. Tchau.” 

 

“Good boy, tchau.”

 

Levi tapped the “end call” button and sighed. He rested his head back against the armrest. He missed his mother. When he called again later, he thought to himself, he would have to talk to his grand parents too. He hadn’t talked to them in a few days and was beginning to feel the nibble of guilt eating away. Or was that the guilt of yelling at Eren earlier? Levi couldn’t tell the difference between the two feelings. The guilt just jumbled together and sat at the bottom of his stomach, the mass clawing at his inside to escape and clutch at his conscious, but he pushed it down. He'd resolve it all soon, just like his mother told him to.

The raven closed his eyes. He wasn’t liking it here. He didn’t like it much at all, and he felt bad for making Eren feel unwelcome as well. The brunet probably wanted to go home just as badly as Levi. The raven didn’t like it because of how easy everything was here. Dinner was a nightmare are the Smith’s house, and he was worried he’d forget his manners when he returned home. He didn’t want his mother to be disappointed in him. He’d fucked up on the first day even, he could tell that Erwin was uncomfortable with his hug in greeting, but the guy really had to get over it. Erwin’s mother thought Levi had called her a whore on the car ride to their home. Levi was shocked, did senhora really sound like whore? She had bad hearing, he repeated to himself. I was like enye, it wasn’t a hard h. He had panicked that first day. His mother said that he shouldn’t give a gift even though they were hosting him, and although he was only listening to what his mother told him, it made him feel nervous. Almost sick. It was very unlike himself. He was polite, and collected. But being away from home was hurting him.

They ate too much meat in the house. Levi was vegetarian, and he felt as though he was wasting their food whenever he’d push the main meat of the dish to the side and eat the rest. He was burden enough, he needed to just ignore the meat. They didn’t eat fish or seafood because Erwin’s father was allergic to both. Levi kissed goodbye to his protein as soon as he walked in the door.

Levi got up from his chair and stretched for a minute. He need to apologize. It was shameful and he felt embarrassed, but he was going to do it. He had to, his mother told him to. So he left his room, headed for the stairway, and went to find the trio. He spotted the two blonds in the spacious living room, cuddling close together with Erwin’s arm around the smaller boy. Levi continued on, hurrying to the kitchen to see if he could catch Eren alone before he went back to the living room. And he was in luck.

 

“Eren.” He whispered, standing behind him and pulling on the taller boys shirt hem.

 

He turned, his teal eyes wide and his hair in his face again. Levi felt the urge to push it away, but restrained it, barely allowing his hand to twitch.

 

“I’m sorry for saying such mean things. I...desculpe. Do you know that word?”

 

Eren stared for a minute before shaking his head. “It is okay.” He said, his long hair swishing with the motion.

 

Levi stared back. He was so tan, and Levi loved how the long hair looked on the much taller teen. “Do you actually understand English?”

 

Eren just stared again. This time, Levi guessed that Eren had just known “I’m sorry” from his apology. He could live with that. That wasn’t bad.

 

“Okay. Good.” The raven said, rocking on his heels a moment before turning. “I’m leaving.” He said, hooking a thumb back at the doorway of the kitchen. Eren nodded.

 

“Tchau.” Levi hummed under his breath.

 

“Tschau…” Eren responded, smiling a bit. 

 

Levi stopped. “Do you speak Portuguese? Você fala Português?”

 

Again, a blank stare. “What? I...German speaking, not much English. Sorry.”

 

The raven stood for a moment before nodding. It was lucky, the words just happened to match up. That happened. Whatever, life goes on. He got his hopes up a bit too high, he realized, as his heart felt a little heavier. He’d gotten excited and hoped that Eren spoke at least some of the same language. He wanted to get to know him. He wanted to get to know him badly, in a million different ways, and a lot of them weren’t appropriate things to admit out loud. 

 

\--

 

Eren stood outside of Levi’s door, fiddling with his hands and slowly rehearsing what he needed to say, over and over and over again. He wanted Levi’s number. He wanted to text Levi. As a cover, he’d already gotten Armin and Erwin’s. He just wanted the ravens phone number so he could text him, maybe learn a little more English. The brunet was good at written English. Like, really good, he could read and translate it pretty easily. But speaking it was a completely different level that he didn’t have the ability to process. It just sounded like gibberish to him. Sometimes, if he was lucky, he’d be able to understand one of two words said to him. But they didn’t look the same as they sounded.

He raised his hand up, ready to knock. He quickly rapped his knuckles against the door, short and staccato. His hand nervously pushed through the long strands of his hair, pushing them back out of his face. I can do this, he thought to himself. I can do this.

 

The short boy opened the door, a glare greeting him. Eren was beginning to wonder if Levi just always glared. 

 

“What do you want?” Levi asked, holding the door open only a few inches.

 

“Can I have your number?” Eren asked, careful in pronunciation. He didn’t want to fumble a single word.

 

Levi paused for a moment, sizing the teen up. “My number? Why do you want that?”

 

“Uh...E-Erwin and Armin…”

 

“Oh. Here, give me your phone.” Levi said, holding out his hand and waiting for Eren to give him his phone.

 

The brunet nodded nervously and tapped in his passcode, swiping over the numbers in quick succession, 3-7-3-6. After a moment of stumbling to find his contacts app again, he pulled up the new contact form and handed it to Levi. The raven typed with both thumbs, quick with the numbers, and then handed it back to Eren. 

 

“Th-thank you.”

 

“You’re welcome.” 

 

Another awkward pause between the two, and Levi was already shutting his door. That was plenty fine with Eren, now he didn’t have the need to be verbal. He could easily just text Levi from this side of the door, and awkward pauses wouldn’t be an issue. Finally, he could feel himself starting to get a bit excited at the thought of finally being able to communicate with the group, specifically Levi though. He wanted to get to know Levi, seeing as the raven was short and grumpy looking, but also pretty attractive to Eren, with his dark hair and sharp features. Eren was genuinely happy for one of the first times since being in America. Thank god, he thought. Maybe things were looking up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you see any errors just let me know, it's a super big help

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not really sure when I'll update this. I'll try and do it once a week, hopefully. No idea, it's just really spontaneous. Well, either way. Come hit me up at gorypalabra.tumblr.com and harrass me about ereri or winmin :DD
> 
> I love comments and kudos ovo


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